A short evening collect in the Order for Evening Prayer in the 1662 Book of Common Prayer, translated from the Gelasian tradition into English at the 1549 reform and carried forward unchanged. It is one of three fixed collects said daily at Evensong by clergy and laity alike, and it is the text most often reached for at bedside vigils and at the close of a difficult day.
Every text below was transcribed from the edition named under it and checked twice, independently, against that edition. That is a claim about wording only: nothing here is selected or endorsed for a particular situation, and nobody credentialed in the tradition has signed it. Older spelling is kept as the edition prints it.
The Collect for Aid against All Perils
A short evening collect in the Order for Evening Prayer in the 1662 Book of Common Prayer, translated from the Gelasian tradition into English at the 1549 reform and carried forward unchanged. It is one of three fixed collects said daily at Evensong by clergy and laity alike, and it is the text most often reached for at bedside vigils and at the close of a difficult day.
English · The Book of Common Prayer, 1662, 1662
Lighten our darkness wee beseech thee, O Lord,
and by thy great mercy defend vs from all Perils
and dangers of this night, for the love of thy only
Son, our Saviour Iesus Christ. Amen.
Church of England, 1662. Published 1662, long before 1929, US public domain. UK Crown patent applies within the United Kingdom, so this edition is used here on the US basis only. Source
This page describes a prayer and, where we hold one, prints a named edition of it. It does not tell you whether to say it, or when. That judgment belongs to someone credentialed in the tradition, and nobody has signed anything here.
